One of the overarching themes of this year’s Discover Scent at Cosmoprof North America 2016 is that there is more to fragrance than just perfume. I started Day 2 speaking with the team behind X Sense. Co-founder Dr. Ashok Gowda presented a product where specific scent blends are meant to provide boosts to memory (worksense), sleep, (restsense) and athletic endurance (playsense). Each of these were studied in clinical trials which showed significant percentage increases. The blend is meant to be rolled on underneath your nose with a rollerball design to make it convenient. I find the idea interesting backed up with data gathered in clinical settings. Dr. Gowda has his degree in biomedical engineering which makes me more confident in their conclusions.

The next stop was my first meeting in real life with perfumer Christi Meshell the founder of House of Matriarch. This past year or so has been a transformative time for Ms. Meshell’s brand as she is one of the rare independent perfumers who has expanded into a wider retail space. She began having her perfumes carried by Nordstrom. I’ve written often about how important I think it is to have an independent perfumer breakthrough at the mall. Having the opportunity to check in with her shows a perfumer and brand representative who is passionately dedicated to trying to achieve this. More importantly I got a preview sniff of her next new release, Kazimi. I wore this on one arm for most of the day. My first impression is this is one of her best.

Abby Wallach co-founder of ScentInvent Technologies introduced me to Linger Lasting Fragrance Primer. Certainly one of the more prevalent consumer complaints is the lasting power of some of their favorite perfumes. Linger is a skin treatment you apply prior to spraying on your perfume. This morning I treated one arm with Linger and the other with nothing. The perfume I sprayed on the Linger patch lasted hours longer than the untreated arm. If you have wanted something which can increase the longevity of a lighter perfume Linger seems to be able to do the trick.

As a blogger with a long time relationship with many brands it can sometimes be frustrating waiting for something I’ve smelled years ago to be released. This was the case with Raw Spirit the fragrance line which has made it a point to use indigenous materials from around the world. What had me anticipating this new release, Mystic Pearl, is the second word in the name. The perfumers have made an extract of pearl which adds an incredible brininess. It is very different than ambergris. This seems saltier which allows it to become more of a focal element to the rest of the perfume.

As I walked back to my hotel room, through the Manadalay Bay casino, at the end of Day 1 of Cosmoprof North America I realized my thought processes on “the world of fragrance” that according to my logo I like to muse upon had expanded. My HQ for the exposition is the cross roads right inside the entrance where the Discover Scent exhibition is set up. Up and down two crossing aisles are a curated selection from the women behind Sniffapalooza; Karen Adams and Karen Dubin.

For the first part of the day I spent time at the Sniffapalooza booth and talking a bit with the other brands in the Discover Scent section. What I saw was the most diverse international crowd I have seen at an exposition. It is also the largest by a lot. It is an interesting experience to see fragrance in the form of perfume playing a smaller part. Even with that reduced footprint there was constant interaction. I spoke with attendees from every continent except Antarctica. They also had very different ways they want to use scent for the consumers in their countries. This new perspective would be reinforced as I wandered around the show floor.

The Sniffapalooza booth on Day 1

There are two other curated sections similar to Discover Scent; Discover Green and Discover Beauty. As I walked through them I was struck at how much a factor scent was for these brands.

Discover Green is as you might imagine the section highlighting the eco-conscious natural and organic brands. It could also be subtitled Discover Millennials. It was very clear that the products were aimed directly at that demographic. Nearly every product was scented according to aromatherapy principles. There is a clear desire to use the natural oils which have a cleaner profile. It means there was citrus, lavender, rose, and most unusually avocado. I realized those scents have become an important part of the natural/organic brands. Seeing it all in one place it brought home something I had never put together which in hindsight seems obvious.

Walking in Discover Beauty which gives the opportunity for small entrepreneurial brands a chance to participate in Cosmoprof. In the hair and nail categories scent wasn’t as important. Skin care was another thing. There were choices to make some products smell “serious” by eschewing additional scent. Most of these products touted a new ingredient. There seems to be a thought that you need to smell that ingredient without having some more usual floral ingredient masking it out. It made me consider if the scent of “serious” actually makes an impression on consumers.

By the time I returned to Discover Scent the announcement that the convention hall was closing for the day rang out over the loud speakers.

Tomorrow I will be spending more time with the exhibitors in Discover Scent returning to my more traditional part of the “world of fragrance”

I am very excited to reveal that I have been invited to attend one of the largest Business-to-Business beauty conventions in the world, Cosmoprof North America 2016. Taking place from July 24-26, 2016 at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas; 30,000 members of the beauty industry will convene.

Cosmoprof covers every conceivable area of the beauty industry. Last year they started a specific section for perfume. Curated by Karen Dubin and Karen Adams of Sniffapalooza the Discover Scent section is an island of fragrance among everything else going on.

I am going to be covering the participants in the Discover Scent area over the three days of the show posting daily wrap-ups as I usually do when attending these kind of expositions.

Some of the brands I’ll be interacting with are:

Demeter Fragrance Library

Fath Essentials

Amerikas, Inc.

House of Matriarch

DefineMe

Scent Invent Technologies

Paglieri 1876

xSense

Besame Cosmetics

I FEEL GREAT

Life Therapy

I am looking forward to seeing what the new brands have to offer and to see what is new for the brands I know of.

Six weeks from now I’ll be channeling my inner Elvis, humming Viva Las Vegas, and bringing you the sights and sounds of Discover Scent at Cosmoprof North America 2016.